In the lasts months I´ve been buried in all types of research and studies regarding bilinguals because of all the material I needed for the book we´re writing. Not that I need to be any more convinced about raising my daughter bilingually, it´s just fascinating to read about studies that basically take pictures of the brain, called neuroimaging, to clearly map out how the brains of bilinguals are different from monolinguals. They say a picture tells a thousand words, and these do!

In a nutshell, their conclusions suggest that the brain of a baby who has heard more than one language since birth (or even in-utero) remains more receptive to learning more languages for a longer period of time than a monolingual brain. That´s why we always say that the sooner you learn a second language, the easier it will be for you to learn more down the road.

What I also found fascinating about this particular study is that while conducting the Bilingual Baby Project, researchers also found and pinpointed three things that are very important for a baby´s overall bilingual comprehension skills; all of which are up to the parents to be aware of and execute.

3 Important Factors to Consider When Raising a Bilingual Child

1. The amount of exposure to each language. Babies and children need to hear the minority language being spoken to them 50-60% percent of their waking hours. It´s important that this exposure comes from human interaction, and not as much from media usage. Media is an important complement, but not something to rely on. Talk to your baby all the time from the day he/she is born. Talk, read, sing-out-loud, immerse him in an all-Spanish environment which could be a playgroup where all the moms are speaking Spanish.

2.The strategies parents use to raise a bilingual child. The two most used and most effective strategies to raise bilingual kids are One Parent One Language (OPOL) and Minority Language at Home (mL@H.) OPOL is when one of the parents speaks one language and the other parent another, all the time. For OPOL to be effective, the commitment from the parents has to be very clear and they must stick to their assigned language all the time. For a deeper insight into the OPOL method, check out these posts.

The mL@H method is the one Roxana and I use because we speak only Spanish at home with our husbands, all the time. English is pretty much not allowed among the three of us in my house. We´ve purposely created a home environment where the minority language can thrive and so my girl can associate Spanish to the comfort of family and home.

In short, what´s really essential is to have a strategy and commit to it. Flexibility is important because you have to adapt with your child´s needs and changing family conditions, but try to be as committed as possible because children do thrive on routine and consistency.

3. The parents’ desires to raise bilingual children. I love this one! Rarely do scientific linguistic research touch upon desire, at least to my knowledge, and I certainly believe it´s one of the most important factors. Both you and your spouse (if there is one) need to truly want and desire for this child to be bilingual. The reasons are usually personal and have to do with nostalgia, family ties, and a cultural bond, and these are the best! It´s that burning desire and want which will constantly drive you to have a method and stick to it; it will also motivate you to find a playgroup, the right dual immersion school, to travel, etc. I will go on a limb and say that desire is the driving force behind a bilingual child. Your desire comes first and that will feed into her´s.

What do you think? What is the one factor that has been the most effective in your bilingual journey, and/or the one you wished you had more of?

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What works for us (though we worry about it) is that my husband and I ONLY speak Spanish TO Sabrina, BUT English and Spanish flow between him and I. It’s something we worry about (the English and Spanish between us) BUT the truth is we have already established the English relationship between us AND we are both American born with Spanish-speaking parents. I know one other person who does the same thing and so far his son is pretty bilingual. It’ll be interesting to see what happens as she gets older. Lately, my husband has been pushing Spanish between he and I, except my only excuse if that I, unlike him, have never lived in a Spanish-speaking country so it doesn’t come as naturally to speak with him in ONLY spanish. Definitely something that always worries me…

It shouldn’t be a problem as long as you’re both consistent at speaking Spanish to HER. Think about those families using OPOL where, as an example, the dad speaks Italian to the kids, the mom Spanish, and they (the parents) speak English to each other. It does happen and results in the kids being trilingual.

That´s a great question, Melissa. When the term “minority” language or L2 (second language) are used it means it’s the minority language in the community, not the household. so, since in the U.S. English is the majority language, any other language automatically becomes the “minority” language.

Thanks for your response Ana. I did think of this after I posted my comment. But I’m still feeling a little confused by this information: 50-60% of waking hours in the “minority language” basically means that, for a child not in a bilingual school setting (which seem to be very hard to come by), every hour that the child does not spend in school must be spent immersed in Spanish for the child to have any chance of becoming bilingual. Is this what you read this number to mean from your research? That doesn’t seem to bode well for OPOL parents like me – i.e. if English is spoken all day at school, and minority language parent gives child Spanish exposure for an hour or two each morning and evening, and all weekend, that is probably still insufficient to make the 50-60% of waking hours cut when you factor in that the other parent is speaking the majority language to the child during those home hours. What do you think about this? I’d be interested to see others, especially those with personal experience, weigh in on this.

I have the same concern. We use the OPOL method at home but my daughter speaks English all day at school, so even if I only speak Spanish to her, English is predominant in her life. I try to work around if by making her understand that our family in Mexico only speaks Spanish and that it’s important that she’s able to communicate with them!

Ha! That´s one of my biggest and most effective tactics! She loves her primos in El Salvador and I always remind her they speak Spanish, so she needs to keep it up to be able to play with them. It always works!

I’m an mL@H child, but in my elementary school years, my mom was single, so I can joke I was an OPOL child: my mom speaking Spanish and the TV speaking English.

I suspect it was an uphill battle for my mom, but as Galle mentions below, the point was ingrained in me that if I wanted to speak with my family in Puerto Rico, I had no choice but to make sure I could speak Spanish.

My suspicion is if the parent stresses the importance of why they want the child to be bilingual, the child will take that to heart. Desire for approval can be a huge motivator and if you can get your kid to see how cool it can be to be bilingual/multilingual (be it speaking with family abroad, new friends in other countries, etc…), half your job in making sure they maintain it is already done.

(Grain of salt of course – I went on to learn French and German in high school, then Arabic for the Army. My brother, on the other hand, avoided all Spanish and only picked it up again when he found it beneficial to a job opportunity.)

Yes, it´s confusing, but there are more factors to consider. The 50% is for your child to achieve complete bilingual fluency, meaning he´s just as adept and fluent in both languages. If he´s exposed to Spanish less than 50% of his waking hours it doesn´t mean that he won´t learn it or reap the benefits of the bilingual mind, but that he might not be completely fluent. This finding came from the book our expert, Barbara Zurer-Pearson wrote: http://spanglishbaby.com/expert/barbara-zurer-pearson-ph-d/
Also, remember that the early years are the most important ones. The more he was exposed to Spanish since birth, the more adept he´ll be in the language.
I would definitely consider more ways to expose him to Spanish through things he might love like TV, apps, books, music, travel, etc.

Melissa, you’re exactly right that with OPOL, when the child goes to school, if the community language is also being spoken by one of the parents, one of the languages gets to be very, very minority. We are in that exact situation now and working hard to move our son into a dual-language immersion school, so things would be a bit less lopsided. But, dual-language immersion schools that don’t cost an arm and a leg are NOT easy to find. I think this is why MLH is so effective.
I can tell you MLH was not an option for us because grandparents on both sides are monolingual, very far away, and quite elderly, and we wanted Baby to be able to communicate directly with them without waiting years until he went to school and acquired the community language.
However, as English has come to dominate for my son as he gets older and has gone to church nursery, gym nursery, and now part-day preschool (in English only), I have been speaking more in Spanish to him, which helps.
One thing that complicates MLH is if one parent is not a native speaker, or perhaps even comfortable (my fluency is mostly work-related and I did not know how to say mom stuff like “get down from there or you’ll break your neck!”) . There are still times every day I say things in English because I am too tired or stressed or rushed. But in general, I have found that jumping in with both feet is challenging but does pay off. Not only do you figure it out, people around you can figure it out too. My 20-year-old daughter actually comprehends Spanish just from being around it. Reading aloud in Spanish with my son is GOLDEN. It’s not just for him — it really boosts my vocabulary and comfort level.
Ana hit the nail on the head, though. A lot comes down to desire. My side of the family (English) has been supportive of Spanish all the way. If that were not the case things would be tougher for me.

this was a very helpful strand… No need to post my question as the discussion posed and answered one-two of them, but I wanted to express my gratitude as always for keeping the conversation (and encouragement) going.

Great article and links to the research. I’m impressed at the mention of desire/motivation. I think we often see research and evaluation of bilingual upbringing done from a very dry, clinical, practical perspective, but motivation and belief definitely play a huge part in the process. Children are extremely smart and intuitive and I believe they can sense the difference between being taught a language because of practical considerations vs. being taught it because there is love and authenticity to the use of that language. I used to think only my kids could sense this because they’re the most brilliant children in all of the Upper Midwest, but I’ve come to find that all kids are like that.

I’m glad we don’t live in the Upper Midwest and have to compete with your niños..the pressure!!

Thanks for stopping by and commenting on this article. I, too, was impressed by the emphasis on the parent´s desire. I guess we take it as a given, when in fact it´s an important motivating factor that can be the driving force behind it all.

I don’t think we, as a family, commit to either strategy. We probably come closest to OPOL, but we’re haven’t really adopted a strategy. I speak English & Spanish fluently. The problem lies in the fact that my husband speaks Spanish fluently, but is trying to learn English. I find it hard to be able to help my husband learn English if he and I are supposed to be speaking Spanish to each other all the time. I do speak English most of the time to my son (18 months old), but at times find myself speaking Spanish to him because I’ve just been talking to my husband and I don’t remember to change. I don’t really know how to help my husband w/ his English, yet make sure our son is getting the minority language (Spanish) if he is only getting it from my husband. Our son isn’t in daycare, and my husband stays home w/ him, so perhaps he’s getting enough Spanish being home w/ his pápi all day….but i still feel like we’re all mish-mashed and there’s no real structure. And I really don’t know what the solution is!

It does sound like you´re using OPOL. If your husband is with your child most of the time and speaks Spanish to him, then you do have it figured out! It´s OK if you and your husband speak in English to each other and you can dabble between Spanish and English with your kid since he´s already getting major exposure from papá. If you can, try to read and sing to him in Spanish so that can become a routine and maybe it´s easier for you.
Does sound like the desire is there!!

Laura, you sound like us! I was speaking English to my husband so he could learn. We actually thought, since Papi works evenings and the Baby was with him or with his beloved Tia all in Spanish all day, that he would be definitely leaning toward Spanish for the first years until he started school. Not so. He was about half-and-half. I don’t know if that’s because it was Mommy speaking English and Mommies are special, or because I just talk my head off all the time when I am with a baby (’cause you’re supposed to do that, they say), or if it’s because he loved Word World and Super Why so much and we let him watch those almost every day (and he did learn a lot), or what, But he was already starting to get more leaning toward English, and then when we started going to church / going to the gym, he was in the nursery there in English a couple times a week, and he went very lopsided toward English. So we have really tried to boost Spanish at home including me speaking to my husband, and we figure his English lessons will just have to wait. We’ll still be married after this, but Marco will only be little and in super-language-sponge mode for a short time.

p.s. our son is also hearing a mish-mash all the time and a lot of Spanglish from Papi’s family. Papi and I are the only ones who stay in English when we’re in English and Spanish when we’re in Spanish. I was worried Marco would be speaking the mixed-up stuff he hears from everyone else — meaning nobody monolingual can understand. He did, for a while. But he figured out how to separate the two languages when he was around 2.

Thanks for all the input!!! I do feel like we are doing a great job with our son. He understands both languages (or so it seems) equally. When he asks us what something is by pointing to it, I usually say the English word first and then the Spanish; my husband just says the Spanish word. Our son is not talking a lot yet, but right now, the words he does say are language specific….for example, he says “leche” but not milk. But he says “hot” not caliente. I don’t stress too much about it because I know he is getting good exposure to both languages (Spanish from me and my husband and English from everywhere else, me, my parents, friends, their kids, etc.) Now if we can just get my husband’s English on track……. I feel like I’m doing a science experiment!!!!

Really terrific research findings shared – thank you/gracias.
I feel our home comes from such a totally different angle since my first husband is the Latino in the family and our two boys are now 23 and 20 we laid a pretty strong foundation for both boys to be bilingual (one has embraced it, the other has not).
Now, since I am remarried to an Anglo, the desire is even stronger it seems to make certain our daughter is bilingual (since she hails from two Anglos who value being bilingual).
It’s work – surrounded by English 24/7 – but we make it fun and we make it personal which helps.

Hi, I was wondering if you are addressing in your upcoming book how native English-speaking families should best go about raising bilingual children when neither of the parents speak a second language? I currently have my 6-yr old son in private Spanish lessons once per week (45 min). I also practice vocab words with him with flash cards. However, in reading your post, obviously we are no where close to 40-60% exposure. What else can we do? Are we fighting a losing battle?

Ana, I think you are really onto something, talking about desire being so important.
Not only does it drive the parents’ actions — it must be related to creating the perceived need in the CHILD’s mind, as well. And perceived need in the child’s mind is what keeps the language going strong in those middle-school and teenage years.

Thanks, Ana for this interesting article. What works for us is the OPOL method (I speak Polish, my husband speaks German), and the children go to a Dutch daycare. So, they’re trilingual. I am trying to be very consistent with speaking only Polish with my children (although the older one wants me to sing Dutch and German songs). AS for the language exposure, it seems that research differs on this one- I’ve heard 30 per cent of waking hours. I love that you mentioned the parents’ desire to raise multilingual children. In research on multilingualism, it is usually assumed that because the benefits are so overwhelming, every parent should want to raise their children bi- or multilingually. Except not all parents have this desire, and not all parents are able to raise multilingual children (time, money, commitment).So, like all things parenting, it is a choice.

Ana L. Flores is co-founder of SpanglishBaby and co-author of the book, "Bilingual is Better." A bicultural and bilingual mom who is committed to holding on to her heritage, for over 15 years she's been dedicated to creating content by and for Latinos in the U.S. and in Latin America. Now, through SpanglishBaby.com and LatinaBloggersConnect.com, her boutique agency connecting brands to Latina bloggers, she is living her dream of being a self-motivated entrepreneur and sharing the stories and resources which matter the most to her. Su casa is now in L.A. where family traditions from Mexico, El Salvador, the Netherlands and the U.S. are dearly embraced...en español.